3.5. Managing Directories

In many ways, directories are treated like files. They can be
created, deleted, moved and copied from
Nautilus or from a shell prompt,
using commands similar to those for files.

3.5.1. Creating Directories

You must have write permissions in a directory in order to
create a new sub-directory. Most users have these permissions
in their home directory (and its sub-directories) and the
/tmp/ directory.

To create a new directory with
Nautilus, navigate to the location
of your new directory. Right-click in a blank portion of the
window and select Create Folder. A new
folder icon appears with the highlighted text
untitled folder. Type a name for your
folder and press [Enter].

To create a new directory using a shell prompt, use the
command mkdir. Enter: mkdir
<directory-name>,
replacing <directory-name>
with the intended title of the new directory.

3.5.2. Deleting Directories

To delete a directory from
Nautilus, right click on it and
choose Move to Trash, or click and drag
the icon to the Trash on the Desktop.

To delete an empty directory from a shell prompt, enter the
command rmdir. To delete a directory that
may not be empty (and consequently everything inside that
directory), enter the command rm -rf <directory>. Refer to Section 4.5.5 Delete files with rm
for more information regarding the rm
command.

3.5.3. Dot Directories

Applications create "dot" directories as well as dot
files. Dot files are a single hidden configuration
file — a dot directory is a hidden directory of
configuration and other files required by the application.
The non-configuration files in these directories are generally
user-specific, and will be available only to
the user who installed them.